Reality Queen!

Reality Queen! is more insipid than the celebrity culture it mocks. In fact, to call this film a satire, a parody, or a mockumentary gives it more credit than it deserves. Somehow, eight writers worked on this and still couldn't come up with a joke good enough to yield one laugh-out-loud moment -- or even a snort. Maybe a snert. It's the type of film where you spend half the time wondering who financed it and then hoping they sue for fraud.

Reality Queen! is also the type of film where "well, THIS part wasn't half bad" is the best compliment you can come up with. And, in that vein, the movie's concept isn't half bad. Exploring how Paris Hilton originated the reality star socialite prototype and manipulated her image, the paparazzi, and the press is ripe subject matter, especially when you contrast it with how the Kardashians built off her blueprint and added a slippier slope. But the writing here is so rudimentary that a community center introductory comedy writing course wouldn't allow the script to leave the premises. Writer-producer-director Steven Jay Bernheim and his star/wife, West, believe that they're letting the world in on a secret, but it's something we already know: Reality shows aren't real. It's like when you're a kid and you think you've come up with something big, so you write a song or play, and your friends and family tell you it was great. But then when you look back years later, you realize it was terrible. That's what this film is. That's reality.